Recent discoveries tell us that Dakhla Oasis
has been populated for over 10,000 years. In Neolithic times
(5500-2500 B.C.), the climate of Dakhla was similar to that of
the African savanna. Buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, zebras,
ostriches, and hartebeests wandered around the shores of a
huge lake, on whose southern bank primitive people had settled
to herd goats and cattle. But with a breakdown in the
environment which caused the lake to dry and the region to
become arid, there was massive migration south and east, which
helped to populate the early Nile Valley. The sands of the
oasis covered the ancient sites and kept them safe for
centuries. Now those same sands are eroding the surface and
ancient cemeteries and villages are popping out of the ground
like rare blossoms. Archaeologists, who are just beginning to
explore the area, are being will rewarded for their efforts.

Dakhla has been known as al-Wah, the Inner
Oasis, Oasis Magna, and Zeszes, place of the two swords.

Pharaonic (2686-332 B.C.)

Dakhla Oasis had contact with the Nile Valley
as early as the Archaic Period (c.3150-2686 B.C.) and this
contact continued through the Third (c.2686-2181 B.C.) and
sixth Dynasties (c.2345-2333 B.C.) of the Old Kingdom. Over a
hundred ancient cemeteries have been recorded by the Dakhla
Oasis Project, in operation since 1978. Covering a span of
time from prehistory to the Roman period, their excavations
have told us much about life during these eras. The Institut
Francais d'Archeologie Orientale, working since 1977, has been
excavating in the area of Ain Asil, where they have uncovered
what is believed to be the Old Kingdom capital of Dakhla
Oasis.

It is likely that during the Old
Kingdom Dakhla Oasis had a direct link to the Nile Valley via
the Darb al-Tawil and was not dependent on the route through
nearby Kharga Oasis. In fact, evidence suggests Dakhla may
have been much more important to the Nile Valley pharaohs than
Kharga.

During the New Kingdom, settlement moved
further west and Mut became the capital of Dakhla. We know
form inscriptions on tombs in the Nile Valley that taxes from
both Kharga and Dakhla were paid in wine, fruit, minerals, and
woven products. We also know that throughout history the oases
were difficult to bring under control. So far away from the
Nile, with so inhospitable a journey, few people went
willingly to the desert.

A stela from the Twenty-second Dynasty found
near Mut by H.G. Lyons in 1894, now known as the First Dakhla
Stela, tells us that Sheshonk I sent a man to "the two lands
of wahat {oases}" to " regulate disputes over water rights."
At that time a "cadastral register of the wells and orchards
took place." In the pharaoh's fifth year he sent one of his
royal relatives "to restore order in the Oasis-land, after he
had found it in a state of war and turmoil."

No evidence has yet merged to indicate a heavy
Greek presence in the oasis, but several Ptolemaic structures
have been found.

Roman (30 B.c.-A.D. 323) and Christian
(323-642) Periods

Like all the oases in the Western Desert,
Dakhla was very heavily populated during Roman rule. Roman
farms, villages, and cemeteries litter the landscape, with
major sites discovered at Smint, Amheida, and Qasr. A heavy
influx of Roman immigrants occurred during the first century,
possibly coming from the Fayoum, where the agricultural
community was in decline. The Romans grew wheat, barley, and
cotton. They had presses for olive oil and wine, and raised
chickens and pigs.

It must be remembered that Dakhla
was an agricultural area in the farthest corner of the Roman
Empire. Unlike Kharga, dotted with dozens of Roman fortresses,
only a few ruined fortresses have been found in Dakhla. The
Kharga fortresses guarded the Darb al-Arbain, the major
economic link to the interior of Afric. Although there is one
route going south from Dakhla, the Darb al-Arbain. It must
also be remembered that Rome expected one third of its annual
supply of grain from Egypt. If the Fayoum was being abandoned,
the grain had to come from somewhere. Dakhla is as likely a
place as is the Nile Valley.

Egypt was not treated
like other conquered countries. Octavian, now Augustus Caesar,
after he defeated Antony and Cleopatra, separated Egypt from
the rest of the empire and oversaw its affairs himself through
the appointment of a prefect, not the usual proconsul.
Augustus, according the Naphtali Lewis in Life in Egypt
under Roman Rule, used members of the equestrian order
(his own) as prefects. He forbade any ranking public figure,
including senators or equestrians, holding a higher rank than
a intact, but changed the power structure. Where the Ptolemaic
era saw soldiers who were farmers living with their families,
Roman soldiers lived in fortified camps and outposts. Small
detachments rotated to key places on the frontier. The Romans
never achieved a sense of belonging to Egypt.

After the Roman period the population declined
dramatically, but grew again when Christians came to Dakhla
and occupied some Roman sites. There are ruins of Coptic
churches and communities dating back as late as the seventh
century. A.J. Mills, head of the Dakhla Oasis Project,
believes this may be the single most important archaeological
fact in Dakhla. Many of these sites have been buried for
centuries and once uncovered and examined may "provide rare
evidence for the development of late Roman/Byzantine periods."
We will be able to see the transition between these two eras,
a transition now shrouded in the mists of the past.

Islamic Era (641-1798)

Closer to our era, the period from the seventh
to the eighteenth centuries has left a permanent mark on this
oasis. Threatened by invaders from the south and west it wast
at this time that the fortified towns like Qasr Dakhla,
Qalamun, Budkhulu were constructed. Built in places selected
for their natural defensive positions, usually a hill or a
cliff, these Islamic towns were divided into quarters, with
gates that were locked at night against invaders. Buildings in
Qasr Dakhla have been identified as existing during the
Ayyubid Period, 1171-1250. Hat is well before the Mamluk era,
so someone was out here doing something.

In recent years, these villages
have spread beyond the protective walls to the now secure
plains below, and have become electrified and modernized, but
in villages like Mut, Qalamun, Qasr, and Balat one is still
able to view the original buildings. All the domed tombs found
throughout the oasis have their origins in Islamic
architecture and some of the facades, especially in Qasr, are
still in Islamic style.

Raiders came out of the west to
loot and plunder the villages in annual raids or ghazyas
(the word that has entered English as 'razzia'). They all did
it: Arab, Tebu, and Tuareg. Edmondstone was told of just such
a raid by Mograbin or Barbary Arabs three years (1816) before
he arrived. There were 400 of them, and just like the
pestilence, they hit and ran. It was probably very similar to
a raid described by Vischer that took place on the road to
Bornu: "The Arabs had chosen the hottest part of the year and
swooped down on Tibesti when the Tubbus {Tebu}, themselves
probably on a raid of their own, expected nothing. Without
much trouble took all the camels, women, and children they
found, burnt villages, cut down palm trees in the most
approved fashion, and hurried off before the husbands had any
news of the disaster."

The raids into Dakhla were so
severe that during Mamluk times the government established a
military colony of Surbaghi (Chourbghi) in Qalamun. It was
their job to stop the raids. Qalamun, established as the main
administrative center of Dakhla Oasis during the Mamluk era,
became the center of Turkish influence. In fact, some families
still insist on their Turkish origins. The Surbaghi destroyed
the wells along the caravan route leading to the west
(probably the Abu Minqar-Kufra camel track, or a lost track to
Kufra) to a distance of seven days. This made any travel to
Dakhla impossible by this route. The trail fell out of use and
was lost. It existed only in rumor. The stories of the raiders
also diminished.

This was the situation when the
European explorers began searching for Zerzura. This
information was given to Ascherson of the Rohlfs Expedition by
Hassan Effendi, the mayor of Dakhla in 1874. He said the
raiders were Bed ajat, a name Henrich Barth used for the
people of Ennedi north of Waidai, but Ascherson believed they
were actually from Bornu. Hassan Effendi actually had one of
the iron boomerangs, called kurbaj, that were used by
the raiders. He gave it to Rohlfs as a gift an it looked just
like a Tebu boomerang found by Nachtigal.

Muhammad Ali subdued the oasis by
force. Edmondstone tells us "… their tribute, which is paid in
kind, not only varies every year, according to hid {the
pasha's} caprice, as they affirm, but four or five soldiers ar
now sufficient for levying it, whereas four hundred were
necessary for that purpose when they first came unde his
dominion." It was during Muhammad Ali's reign that the first
Europeans came to Dakhla.

British Occupation (1882-1954)

During the Mahdist uprising in Sudan, Dakhla
fared better than Kharga. A few Dervish raids, a rebuilding of
the Mut fortifications, and the threat was over. Dakhla did
have a Zawya and was occupied by Sanusi forces in 1916,
when the British were chasing the Sanusi through the Western
Desert. Some of the people of the oasis joined the Sanusi,
others considered them just another set of invaders. The oasis
was taxed and forced to supply provisions for the army. One of
the villagers from Gedida remembers how difficult the
occupation was, maintaining that no supplies came via the Nile
Valley and commodities, such as fabric, became scarce. The
occupation lasted until October 16 of the same year.

The British, who were in control of
Egypt at that time, evacuated all British personnel from
Kharga in anticipation of a takeover. According to Massey,
they sent a reconnaissance plane to Mut on October 9-10, and
it observed that the Sanusi were on their way out of the
oasis. On October 15, three lieutenants (Armstrong, Lindsay,
and Gayford), six light patrol cars, three Lewis guns, a Ford
delivery van with signalers, and ten motorcyclists took off
for Dakhla. One can almost see them charging down the Ghubari
Road, circling sand dunes, with the Union Jack snapping in the
wind. They were met by an armored car and tender at mile 73, a
former Sanusi post. Two sections f Australian Imperial Camel
Corps soon joined them.

They occupied Tineida on the 16th
. On the 17th Armstrong and four patrol cars went
to Balat and Buddkhlu. Nearby they encountered some Sanusi and
attached. They surrendered to the Lewis guns. Armstrong moved
on to Rashida and "arrested ten Senussi in the Omda's house."
Wright went to Bir Sheikh Muhammad and captured forty Sanusi
while he burned the farm building. In all, in three days, 181
Sanusi were captured including seven "Egyptian coastguards who
had traitorously left their posts in the coastal section." The
remainder of the Sanusi headed for Siwa where, by this time,
they were unwelcome.

In colonial days the road from
Dakhla was open to motorcars, but the journey took nine hours.
The more adventurous traveler could go by camel which took
three to four days.

Today

There are sixteen villages in Dakhla Oasis.
(When Edmondstone was here in 1819, there were twelve.) Mut,
named aftr the ancient Egyptian goddess of the Theban triad,
is the capital. Today there are 127,000 inhabitants in the
entire New Valley with 75,000 in Dakhla. Of these 11,000
reside in Mut(in 1874 there were 17,000 in all of Dakhla).

Agriculture is the main industry in
Dakhla and its olives, dates, onions, and dried fruit are
exported to the Nile Valley. By government decree each farmer
must cultivate wheat and rice, and orchards must have a
variety of trees including dates, oranges, apricots, and
olives. Recent years have seen the introduction of a number of
modern innovations: diesel pumps, certified seeds, chemical
fertilizers, mechanization, and commercial pest management.
Modern pest management, including pesticides, which some claim
compound the problem, have been introduced at Mt especially in
post-harvest storage of grains. These pests, including
insects, weevils, sus, and rodents, firan, have been
formidable enemies for centuries. In some instances farmers
lose 50 percent of their crops to pests, either in the fields
or in storage.

Traditional methods of post-harvest
pest control include burying grain in the sand, which has
worked for centuries, to keep grain not only insect free, but
dry. The second method is storing the crops in granary rooms
inside of houses. A final method is storing grain in specially
built mud silos, souma. Anne M. Parrish, with the University
of Kentucky field team, reports, "Some farmers say that 'in
the old days' there were no sus. One even said that there were
no sus until the Ministry of Agriculture came to the oasis.
But others explained that 'the old days' were also 'the poor
days.' Food was consumed before insects could cause serious
economic losses." She also tells us an interesting story about
rats: "One farmer said: 'Rats are so clever that they send
their young in to eat first. If they don't die, then the old
ones come in to eat."

Primary and preparatory schools
exist in all villages, with three secondary schools at Mut,
Balat, and Qasr Dakhla. In Mut commercial, teaching,
industrial, and agricultural schools have been established in
the past few years. Each village has a clinic (with a hospital
in Mut), a post office, electricity, tap water, and telephone
service with foreign exchange.

Marriage usually takes place in summer. Men
marry when they are 20 to 25 and women at 17 to 20. Families
which have always averaged five to ten children are
streamlining to four or fewer.